‘I feel proud to have helped older peo­ple’

Pupils who have par­tic­i­pated in the Once Upon a Time lo­cal his­tory project at Manch­ester Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Acad­emy speak with an elo­quent en­thu­si­asm about its ef­fect on them.

Ric­cardo Baio, 14, says: “It de­vel­ops you as a per­son, be­cause car­ing for the el­derly and help­ing is some­thing you need all of your life. It’s some­thing nice to do, and some­thing you will have to do at some point.”

Many stu­dents were struck by the con­trast be­tween their lives to­day – full of gad­gets and tech­nol­ogy – and those of the older gen­er­a­tions. “Tech­nol­ogy has over­come ev­ery­thing, but then, they didn’t have it, but they were still happy”, says El­lie How­ell, 15. “It shows that tech­nol­ogy doesn’t have to be in our lives.”

Has­naa Hay­der, 14, says the project taught her to “live life to the fullest”, while Leanne Shake­shaft, 13, urges young peo­ple to talk to their older rel­a­tives: “Just try to get a good un­der­stand­ing of the past. Don’t keep your head in the fu­ture all the time. At least un­der­stand the past.”

So how does El­lie feel when she goes home af­ter school? “I feel proud of my­self, that I’ve helped older women and men,” she says.